The following advice and suggestions are offered to help you get the most out of club nights so that you enjoy your badminton, and ensure that we all have a good time. Within this document, reference is made to the Laws of Badminton; if you’d like to see them ask a committee member, or you can view and/or download them from the International Badminton Federation
Administration
Pegboard
Court Boundaries
Shuttles
Warming Up
Toss for Service
Play
Scoring
Line Calls
Service
Bad Shots
Ceiling and Beams
Shuttle in the Net
When the Game is Over
Before You Go Home
Variations
Administration
The Hursley Sports hall is available for use from 7pm on Wednesdays and Fridays. If you are the first to arrive, the 12 light switches for the hall are in a bank halfway up the walkway to the hall on the left-hand side – press them down to turn the lights on. The bag is stored in the club cupboard, which is the one immediately adjacent to the last double doors before the entrance to the hall itself. The cupboard is secured by a combination lock, the number known to the committee members.
For club nights, we use the nets from the club bag, not the Hursley Club ones stored openly in the walkway.
Pegboard
The pegboard is designed to give everyone plenty of chances during the evening to have enjoyable games. The board has space at the left hand side for pegs of players waiting to be picked. It is your responsibility when you arrive to put your peg on the board below the waiting players’ pegs – if you don’t have a peg see a committee member who will sort one out for you. The person whose peg is at the top of the board chooses from him/herself and the next six players. This may be varied only in exceptional circumstances; for instance, if the chooser is a lady and there are no other ladies’ pegs in the next six she may choose two men from those six, and the highest lady from the other waiting players (she may also elect to play with three men or one man and two other ladies if she so wishes). It may also be varied at the discretion of the committee; for instance, if it is thought beneficial that team players have some match practice.
Club policy is to play doubles on club nights as playing singles halves the number of courts available (and is hard work!). Singles may be played if there are insufficient players to occupy all the available courts, but please consider the feelings of others who may also be sitting out waiting for a game.
Once a four has been chosen, their pegs are moved to the “waiting” area of the pegboard, the pegs of the remaining waiting players are moved up the board ready for the next game to be picked, and the board passed to the next chooser. When a court becomes available, the waiting four move their pegs to one of the court areas on the board and go on court. It is the chooser’s prerogative to select the pairs for the game. A short warm-up (see Warming Up below) should be undertaken (longer for the first game of the night, or if players have been sitting out for a long time but see Variations below) to prepare for play.
Court Boundaries
While waiting to play do not stand near (or on!) any of the courts in use as a player may hit you with his/her racket or collide with you and incur injuries, or worse, lose the point. 
Do not walk on courts that people are playing on – leave at least a foot of clear space beyond the court when walking past, and especially don’t take a short cut over the corners! Also, please do not walk past a court while a rally is in progress as this can be distracting for the players; wait until the rally is finished, which is usually only a matter of a few seconds.
Shuttles
We are fortunate in having a (virtually unlimited!) supply of high quality feather shuttles to play with. Please treat them with respect and don’t abuse them by kicking them or pushing them across the floor with your racquet against the tips of the feathers. Use “used” shuttles for warming up. To remove a shuttle from a tube, gently shake the tube from below its mid-point; this will move the shuttles to the end of the tube from where you can extract the top one. If you extract two (they may become stuck together) do not put the extra one back in the tube as it will inevitably get stuck facing the others and be impossible to extract! Instead place it on the floor, with the cork base facing upwards. As a general rule of thumb, shuttles laying on their sides are used, while shuttles standing on their feathers are new.
Try not to damage shuttles by mis-hitting them. If you find you frequently mis-hit your shots, have a word with a committee member who may be able to suggest ways to avoid mis-hitting.
Warming Up
Warm up gradually, in order to prepare your body for the activity – don’t just rush in and hit shuttles as hard as you can! There are two reasons for this: you may injure yourself and you may encourage your warm-up partner to overhit, causing strained and very sore shoulder muscles (of course, you won’t notice these until the next day!). Do remember that the purpose of the warm-up is for both of you to limber up so you are ready to play with confidence from the start of the game (with no tight muscles or cold bits), so hit the shuttle within their reach. It is not an opportunity to show your warm-up partner how good you are by revealing all your clever shots – you should save those for the game itself! The four should use two shuttles during the warm-up as this allows everyone to warm up in half the time.
Start the warm-up with some gentle mid-court push shots as this enables you to get yourself moving while minimising the risk of straining muscles when they are cold and stiff. When you are comfortable doing that increase the pace to accustom your eyes to the speed of the shuttle, and to get your reactions up to speed. Now you can start doing full court clears to get the power flowing, after which you should vary the depth of shot to allow your partner to get used to moving about the court (of course, your partner will also be doing this for you). When you are warm, lift the shuttle so your partner may practise smashes – repeat attacking shots moving towards the net; then expect them to lift for you to practise them. Finally, you may like to practise a few serves. During the warm-up, if there are specific shots you wish to practise ask your partner to hit the shuttle to an appropriate place, but be prepared to offer the same courtesy in return.
Toss for Serve
When everyone is ready to begin, hit the shuttle vertically into the air – the winning side is the one the shuttle’s cork base points towards on landing (you have to be in your pairs on opposite sides of the net for this to work!). If the toss isn’t conclusive, repeat it until it is. The side winning the toss may elect either a) to serve or receive first, or b) to choose ends. The losing side may then exercise the remaining choice.
Play
Badminton is a fun game, so make sure you enjoy it, and please try to look as though you’re enjoying it! Play with a good grace and respect your opponents (and your partner); they’re probably doing their best. Please don’t shout and swear, or throw rackets about, or kick the shuttle, however frustrated you get.
Scoring
A club night game consists of a single game to 21 points (refer to the laws of badminton linked at the top of the page for full details) (but see the variations section below). It is each player’s responsibility to keep the score, and it is helpful if someone calls the score aloud between points. Note that when the score reaches 20-all in the Rally Point System, the side which gains a 2-point advantage wins the game unless the score reaches 29-all, when the pair scoring the 30th point wins the game.
To determine which side players should be on, you need to remember which of your pair last served, which will indicate the side they should be standing. The nature of the new system ensures that players will always serve alternately.
Line Calls
The players on whose side the shuttle lands are responsible for calling shots “in” or “out” and their decision is final (however wrong it may be!). The whole of the line is considered part of the court (except for feet during the service, see the service section below). In the event of the caller being uncertain or unsighted the other players may be consulted. If the point remains uncertain, a “let” may be called and the point replayed. In the event of a call being disputed, the caller’s decision is final.
Service
The following are some points concerning the service:
- The server and receiver must not touch the lines of the service court
- Some part of both feet of the server and receiver must be in contact with the surface of the court in a stationary position until the service is delivered
- The server’s racket must initially hit the cork base of the shuttle
- The whole shuttle must be below the server’s waist at the instant of being hit. The waist is considered to be an imaginary line round the body level with the lowest part of the sever’s bottom rib
- The shaft of the server’s racket at the instant of hitting the shuttle must be pointing in a downward direction (it is no longer necessary for the whole of the head of the racket to be discernibly below the whole of the server’s hand holding the racket)
- Once the players are in position the first forward movement of the server’s racket is the start of the service. There must also be no delay from the completion of any backward swing of the racket to the start of the service
- The movement of the server’s racket must continue forwards from the start of the service until the service is delivered
- The flight of the shuttle must be upwards from the server’s racket (so if your waist is more than 5 feet high you don’t get an advantage!)
- The service is delivered when the shuttle is hit (or missed) by the server’s racket
Bad Shots
Within the Laws of Badminton, it is a fault if the shuttle is either caught and held on the racket and then slung during the execution of a stroke, or hit twice in succession by the same player with two strokes. Any other shot, off the frame, shaft, handle or strings, is not a fault, even though the resulting shot may give rise to an unfair advantage. When a player makes a bad shot, it is that player’s prerogative alone to call it as bad and concede the rally, or not. If a shot is badly deflected off the frame during execution of a stroke, the player may call it or not, as they see fit. In most games, in our experience, there are a number of such shots by all players, so any advantage accruing tends to be transitory.
Ceiling and Beams
Within the Laws of Badminton, if the shuttle hits the ceiling it is a fault. If the shuttle hits beams or anything else encroaching into the playing area, a “let” is called and the point replayed. If a shuttle (or player!) from an adjacent court encroaches into the playing area, a let may be called and the point replayed.
Shuttle in the Net
When the shuttle is played into the net, it is the responsibility of the player of that shot to give the shuttle to the next server – please don’t storm off in a huff and expect someone else to pick it up. Obviously, if the shuttle lands in, or out, of the court on your side of the net, it’s more convenient if the nearer of you or your partner picks up and gives the shuttle to the next server.
When the Game is Over
When the final point has been won, thank your partner and opponents. Hand-shaking is optional, as some of us don’t always wish to impose our, er, perspiring hands on others. Leave the shuttle prominently in the serving area for the next four to find. The game chooser moves your four’s pegs, with the winning pair above the losing pair (lady first if you’re courteous), to the waiting (left-hand) side of the pegboard below the other waiting players’ pegs.
Take care to keep warm while waiting – a top and trousers are recommended if the evening is cool/cold. You may also take the opportunity to do some gentle stretches while waiting. Also remember to maintain your fluid intake to avoid becoming dehydrated. Please make sure that drinks containers are spill-proof to avoid accidents caused by people slipping on a wet floor.
Before You Go Home
It would be really appreciated by the committee if you would ask a committee member whether there’s anything you can do to help tidy up the hall before leaving. Later in the evening as people have left, there may be empty courts, so it might be appropriate to put away unused net-posts and store the club net in the club bag. Similarly, there are often a number of used shuttles lying around; the better ones should be put into a spare shuttle tube for knocking up next club night, and the rubbish ones discarded in the bin outside the hall. You can check with a committee member what we mean by “better ones” and “rubbish ones”, and you’ll know for the future. Don’t forget to remove your peg from the peg-board and put it on the “storage” board and finally, ensure you have collected all your belongings.
Variations
Some club nights are busier than others and on exceptionally busy nights there may be long waits between games. On these occasions the committee may decree that games be played to a lesser number of points, in order that more games may be played during the evening. In these circumstances please do not take an excessive amount of time warming up.
On occasion, players may be segregated onto a number of different pegboards should the committee deem it necessary and/or advisable. This has been necessary in the past when we have had a large number of players with a wide range of playing abilities. When this occurs you will be advised of which pegboard and court(s) to use.
